Scatterider guidance system based on maintaining a minimum distance between the designating laser beam and the longitudinal axis of the flying object being guided relates to the area of technology that encompasses the use of laser designators to provide a guidance reference which is, in turn, utilized to guide the object to a designated target.
Extant guidance systems which use a laser designator to provide guidance signals to a flying object, such as a missile, employ either beamriding method or semi-active terminal seeking method. In the beamrider guidance, the missile flies inside the laser beam so that guidance information can be determined from laser scan pattern by one or more rear-looking detectors mounted on the missile. The scan pattern information is used on board the missile to calculate the guidance commands necessary to guide the missile to the center of the beam. Alternatively, the guidance commands can be calculated on the launch platform and received by the missile's rear-looking receiver or a wire link to guide the missile to the center of the beam. In the semi-active terminal seeker guidance, the seeker on board the missile detects the laser energy that is reflected from the target being designated by a laser designator. The seeker then outputs missile-to-target line-of-sight angles or angle rates to the guidance processor, also on board the missile, for use in calculating the guidance commands to guide the missile to the target.
Above-mentioned methods of missile guidance are adversely affected by environmental and battlefield obscurants such as rain, fog, clouds, smoke and chemical aerosol agents. These obscurants attenuate the energy of the laser proportional to range from the launcher and thereby reduce the effective range from the launcher at which a beamrider guided missile can successfully hit the target. The obscurants also reduce the range from a target at which a semi-active laser seeker can detect the laser energy reflected from the target. The reduced range, in turn, decreases the time available for the missile guidance system to correct missile heading errors after the target is detected, thus increasing the miss distance at the target. Also increased is the probability that when the missile does get within the degraded detection range from the target, the target will be outside the field of view of the seeker and will not be detected.